By utilising the Microsoft Excel shortcuts you can get back some of the time you spend on your spreadsheets but it may need a sticky note or two on your screen to help you memorise them but it will be worth it!

When we are driving somewhere and we are presented with a shortcut, we will generally take this option. Despite the shortcut we have still achieved our objective or getting to where we need to be and we have the added bonus of some time free to either kick back and rest or do something else we need to do.

By utilising Microsoft Excel shortcuts at work you can still achieve your project goal and have some additional time to get on with the next job on the ever increasing to do list.

When I am working on a Microsoft Excel worksheet I am able to zip round the workbook, quickly format cells, print, etc at what may seem like a very rapid rate but if I’m honest, a lot of this is down to knowing my Microsoft Excel shortcut keys.

If you use Microsoft Excel or some of the other Microsoft applications regularly then it’s probably worth investing a bit of time in finding some of the shortcut keys and popping a sticky note on your screen with the useful ones and learning them until it becomes second nature!

Below are some of the shortcut keys you should get familiar with when using Excel –

GENERAL WORKBOOK SHORTCUTS

  • Ctrl+N – Create a new workbook
  • Ctrl+O – Open an existing workbook
  • Ctrl+S – Save a workbook
  • F12 – Open the Save As dialog box
  • Shift+F11 – Insert a new worksheet
  • Ctrl+Z – Undo an action
  • F9 – Calculate all worksheets in all open workbooks
  • Shift+F9 – Calculate active worksheets
  • Ctrl+F – Search in a spreadsheet, or use Find and Replace

NAVIGATING A WORKSHEET

Some of these shortcuts keys are dependent on a setting in the Excel Options which can be access as follows

  • ALT+T (Excel Tools)
  • O (Options)
  • Select Advanced
  • Scroll down to ‘Lotus compatibility
  • Check the ‘Transition navigation keys’

The following shortcuts will now work as described below

  • CTRL + Home – Select and scroll to A1 or the top left of a worksheet with Freeze Panes activated
  • End then Home – Navigates and scrolls to the bottom right of a worksheet
  • CTRL + Up – Navigates and scrolls to the top of a empty or completed range
  • CTRL + Down – Navigates and scrolls to the bottom of a empty or completed range
  • CTRL + Left – Navigates and scrolls to the left of a empty or completed range
  • CTRL + Right – Navigates and scrolls to the right of a empty or completed range
  • CTRL + Pg Up/Down – Move to the previous of next worksheet

CELL/RANGE SELECTION

  • Shift + Up/Down/Left/Right – Extend the selection range
  • Shift + Space – Select entire active row/s
  • CTRL + Space – Select the entire active column/s
  • CTRL + Shift + Space – Select the entire worksheet

CELL/FORMULA EDITING

  • F2 – Edit the active cell contents
  • Shift + F2 – Add or edit a cell comment
  • CTRL + C – Copy the selected range contents
  • CTRL + X – Cut the selected range contents
  • CTRL + V – Paste into the selected range
  • CTRL + Alt + V – Opens the Paste Special Dialog box
  • Alt + Enter – Whilst editing a cell via F2, adds a Carriage Return to the point where the cursor is in the cell contents
  • Alt + E, D – Deletes a selected row or column or opens the Delete dialog box
  • CTRL + B – Adds/removes the Bold setting from the selected range
  • CTRL + U – Adds/remove the Underline setting from the selected range
  • CTRL + I – Adds/removes the Italics setting from the selected range

These are just a few of the more useful and regularly used shortcuts available in Microsoft Excel but all the Microsoft applications have many more…..you just need to start using them and before you know it you’ll be zipping around the application like an expert!!